Composting

To save on waste and provide a nutritious soil amendment for your garden, consider making a home compost pile. This is a good way to recycle precious nutrients back into the earth. To make a compost pile that will break down quickly to form finished compost, you will need: * Green materials, such as grass clippings, vegetable trimmings, and weeds. Green waste is high in nitrogen and helps heat up the compost pile fast. * Brown materials, including dry leaves, straw and woody brush. Brown material is high in carbon. * Enough moisture to keep the compost pile as damp as a wrung out sponge. * Air to help build up more heat so that the material will decompose faster. * A source of good bacteria to help break down the compost. A scoop of garden soil should be all you need, but you can also buy a compost activator. Put all of your ingredients together in a pile of four to five cubic feet. A pile of this size heats up quickly in the center, reaching up to 140 degrees Farenheit. Turn your compost pile regularly to help it break down evenly.